Jae’s Play Kitchen

Some little girls deserve it all.

Making this play kitchen was one of the funnest projects I have ever done. Could it be because I got to step out of my comfort zone and into the world of little people? Could it be because I got to work side-by-side with my Mister? Or could it be that the proud recipient of this play kitchen happens to be one of the sweetest little girls I know? – Yes. Yes. Double yes.

I have seen tons of cute play kitchens floating around in blogland – some made from repurposed nightstands, others made from random Ikea furniture, and some made from scratch. Tons and tons of great inspiration out there. I just fell in love with so many of them. Reading through the descriptions of some, I noticed one used beadboard for the backing. Ding! (Light bulb above my head).

All the thoughts came rushing together. We had a lonely piece of beadboard just chilling out in our bedroom (I know, long story) and darling Jae’s birthday was right around the corner. How perfect! I knew right then I had to sweet talk Mr. BEY into tackling this project with me.

I know he gets on board with most wild-haired projects of mine, but I was pretty sure he would flip when I said I wanted to build a play kitchen from scratch in less than two weeks! I drew a sketch of what I had envisioned and he said, “Ok.” Wait…ok? That’s it? You’ll help me?

Gosh I love that man.

Mr. BEY took my sketch and worked out all the measurements, while I picked out paint colors and fabric swatches. We each had our own roles in this little kitchen wonder. Mr. Blue Eyed Yonder pulled out the power tools: measuring, cutting, nailing, sanding, painting – that’s his kind of thing.

We worked together scouring store after store for a stainless steel bowl with a lip, a mini faucet, the perfect hardware and even a little light for the inside of the oven.

Piece by piece it started to come together. We were absolutely smitten!

When I saw our creation sitting so daintily on our living room floor, my head started churning out some more ideas. (Never mind that it’s midnight the night before her party, when has that ever stopped me?)

I decided to make a matching mini-towel. Using the scraps from the sink curtain, I whipped up a cute hand towel addition. At first it just had ruffles, but it looked a little bare. Ah-ha! It’s a birthday party, why not add a cute cupcake to the towel. I hand-traced the cupcake and attached it to the towel with iron on fabric adhesive. I then ran upstairs to scour my stash of buttons for the “cherry on top.”

Ta-da! This impromptu towel turned out to be one of my favorite features. But alas, I didn’t stop there. Every kitchen has to have a nice vase of flowers. So, at 1 am, picture me wandering around my house looking for something “vase-like” to use. I ended up using an empty paper towel roll. I trimmed off some of the height and wrapped it with matching fabric. I then hot glued it to a round foam base so it would stand on its own.

**My thumb throbs telling you this story. As I attempted to hot glue the vase to the foam base, no hot glue seemed to be coming out of the gun. I turned the gun around to take a look at it and a big glob of piping hot glue dripped out and landed on the knuckle of my thumb.

I had no time to decide what to do, my instincts just took over and I immediately tried to rub the glue off. Duh, it’s called ‘hot’ glue for a reason. In attempting to get the hot glue off my knuckle, it stuck to my other fingers and began burning them as well. I kept trying to rub off the hot glue when I realized something…that’s not hot glue I’m rubbing off…that’s my skin! Eww!

Way #157 that I do not want to die: Death by hot glue gun.

For the flowers, I used tissue paper to make mini-dahlias and attached them to wooden dowels. At this point, me and my throbbing thumb went happily to bed.

Our little kitchen was a lot of work, but we loved every minute of it (minus the hot glue minute). Such a precious surprise for such a special little girl.

Needless to say, Jae loves her play kitchen. She likes cooking breakfast, washing dishes and ‘drinking’ out of the tap. She even knows stuff out of the oven is “hot”.

Because of the positive feedback and the fun we’ve had making this kitchen, we have decided to take orders for more play kitchens. Yay hooray!

And of course, feel free to email me at blueeyedyonder{at}gmail{dot}com if you would like more information.

A big thanks to Tammy Miller of Paris Miller Photography for sharing the adorable photos of Jae playing with her kitchen. Muwah!

You know I love the behind-the-scenes story almost more than the actual finished project. I cannot express enough how very proud we are to have the first ever BEY Play Kitchen. The craftsmanship is impressive. It's hard to imagine you'll ever be able to improve upon your design, but I cannot wait to see what future kitchens look like. I know there will be more in your future. This is something that will stay in the Brislin family for years and years.Savannah – go ahead and get one now. There's no doubt it will last!

Once again, you've both outdone yourselves! I absolutely love it and I'm sure Jae does as well. I can assure you that I'll be putting in an order for the next grandchild. (Hopefully I have a couple of years.) But if Heather has her way it will be sooner than that.

i love this! and even though mary margaret already has her own pink retro kitchen in her playroom, i'm thinking she needs a play oven for the kitchen! {she's obsessed with our new stove}i'll be emailing you!

wow! that is so cute – I want one to play with 😉 and I LOVE the little dish towel. I think my little girl is getting a kitchen for her bday (next Week) and I think I will make her a little towel like that – so Anthropologie! you have a really cute blog!

This is the cutest kitchen I have ever seen. It's so sweet and beautiful. What a great idea to sell them, hope you do well with that, I don't see why you wouldn't. Again, it's super cute, what a keepsake!!

Oh wow, I didn’t realize there were plans for this kitchen. Mr. Blue Eyed Yonder and I did things the old fashioned way. We did a Google images search for “play kitchens” and found this one: http://tiny.cc/tagqx

Both having a background in construction, we drafted our own plans and dimensions and my friend picked the paint color and fabric to coordinate with her own home’s decor. (You’ll notice differences in actual construction, ie: different sized units, constructed of cabinet-grade plywood, different oven door design, different material use for backing, etc.)

No worries though, we haven’t sold any yet, we will further tweak our design to prevent any confusion. Thanks for the heads up!

I think you can sell Ana's designs. I think she just wants the credit. If you designed it then no issue. If you like woodworking you will love her site. No need to recreate the wheel. http://www.knock-offwood.com/Even with the free plans I would buy from you. It looks like you do great work and I can save my time to do other projects. Cute kitchen.

I just love you Krista….but I must say that I do envy your craftiness a little (ok a lot). I usually blame my lack there of to "no time" but I must quit using that excuse. Thanks for letting me live out my "wish I coulds" thru you. Hope to see you soon!

Hi Krista! Just found you through Natalie (Old Southern House) and then saw this kitchen…what a gorgeous piece!!! You and your hubby definitely have a gift. I'd love to see this in our house…though I'm not sure how my two little guys would feel about the ruffles 😉

I have been building one of these off and on for about a month (I'm an ADD crafter can't work on just one project at a time). I have decided to switch it up a little and want to put a light in the oven. Can you tell me how you put the light in yours and what you used? I have been trying to figure out the safest way to do this.

I mounted it to the inside of the oven using a small screw. The light has a slot on the back so it can hang on a screw or nail. These lights usually come with double-side adhesive strips, but mounting it this way makes it harder to change the batteries.

Good luck with your kitchen, I would love to see some pics of the finished product!

Just stumbled across your blog whist searching for a wooden play kitchen for my daughters 3rd birthday….I absolutely love yours it's gorgeous. Are you still making these for others to buy? If you are my baby girl would love one. Please could you message me annelee69@hotmail.comThank you Hayley Xxx

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